Alderman Raises New Questions About Serial-killing Suspect

February 01, 2000|By Lisa Fingeret, Tribune Staff Writer.

A Chicago alderman today said Andre Crawford may have attended a public meeting on the Englewood serial killings -- and been part of a neighborhood crime-watch patrol organized by police -- before he was arrested and charged with 10 of the murders.

Ald. Shirley Coleman (16th) said that, since Crawford's arrest last Friday, residents have told her that Crawford attended the meeting and joined the crime patrol.

"He was actually working with the police," Coleman alleged during a City Hall news conference. "I understand he was actually at the meeting we had in June where we had about 300 people out to talk about this."

A Chicago Police Department spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Crawford, 37, was charged Sunday with 10 counts of murder, 11 counts of sexual assault and one count of attempted murder. The attacks he is accused of committing occurred between 1993 and 1999 in Englewood and New City.

Coleman today also criticized police for the time it took them to arrest a suspect in the 10 slayings.

"I am angry that, for seven years, this has had to go forth in our community, that this man has been among us," she said.

Coleman again alleged that police dragged their feet on the investigation. The victims were mostly known drug abusers and prostitutes. Police have denied that the victims' backgrounds prompted them to investigate less aggressively.

"I don't care what profession a woman lives by, whether she was a prostitute or not," Coleman said. "No one deserves to die the way these women have had to die."

In most of the attacks, Crawford is accused of strangling the women and then having sex with them, according to police.

Also today, Coleman presented the Mary McDowell Settlement House in Englewood with $1,000 from the 16th Ward's Englewood Rescue Fund. The group worked with detectives in their investigation, Coleman said.